Parts made of composite materials are used in a variety of industries, including the aircraft industry. To form a composite part, uncured composite laminate material is often placed on a cure tool for autoclave curing and subsequent machining. Specifically, a rigid cure tool can have one or more cutter grooves formed therein with sacrificial material placed therein. Uncured composite material may be placed over the cutter grooves and sacrificial material and then cured into the composite part. To keep the composite material in place during cure, a sacrificial material is selected that is compatible with the cure cycle of the composite material and bonds or adheres to the composite material during cure. A cutting tool cuts through the composite material and into the sacrificial material in the cutter groove to release the composite part from the rigid cure tool. Small amounts of sacrificial material still adhere to the outer edges of the composite part and must be sanded off, cut off, or otherwise removed therefrom, which adds to labor costs and increases the likelihood of damaging the cured composite part. The sacrificial material remaining in the cutter groove after the composite part is removed must be cleaned out of the cutter groove and replaced with new sacrificial material. A high degree of skill is required to achieve an acceptable surface finish on the sacrificial material during replacement.
For highly-contoured composite parts, significant residual stresses may remain after cure and warp or lift the composite part off the tool surface. Hold-down strength of the sacrificial material in the cutter groove may be insufficient to prevent the composite part from separating from the tool. For example, the composite part may separate from the sacrificial material or pull the sacrificial material out of the cutter groove. This separation can lead to inaccuracies while cutting or otherwise machining the cured composite part. A dove-tail configuration of the cutter groove may be used to prevent the sacrificial material from pulling out of the cutter groove, but this trapped geometry also makes the remaining sacrificial material more difficult to clean out of the cutter groove after removal of the cured composite part.